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This web page was created by the braintumorguy, in Athens, GREECE. please make a Small Donation, in my fight against my Brain Tumor which is Growing,

www.paypal.com my email account: braintumor2014@gmail.com

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(1) 2015-08-15 me and King Leonidas of Sparta, Greece, in front of the Acropolis Museum, in Athens, Greece.

(2) 2015-11-22 in front of the Acropolis, in Athens, Greece.

(3) 2015-11-26 in Athens GREECE, in Syntagma Square in front the Parliament Building. - in between the water fountain and the Christmas Tree.

(4) 2016-05-01 me and my Masters, the Great Ancient Greek Philosophers Plato, and Aristotle.

(5) 2016-05-30 Beautiful Greece & the Greek Islands from Space on a beautiful clear day. Thank you NASA.

for more information about me, please visit my main web page

https://sites.google.com/site/niactec/

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2016-10-23 : the website is under construction.

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Who were the ancient Greeks?

1. Welcome to ancient Greece
2. The early history of ancient Greece
3. After the Dark Age
4. Places of ancient Greece
5. How was Greece ruled?
6. Where next?

1. Welcome to ancient Greece

About 2,500 years ago, Greece was one of the most important places in the ancient world. The Greeks were great thinkers, warriors, writers, actors, athletes, artists, architects and politicians.

The Greeks called themselves 'Hellenes' and their land was 'Hellas'. The name ‘Greeks’ was given to the people of Greece later by the Romans. They lived in mainland Greece and the Greek islands, but also in colonies scattered around the Mediterranean Sea. There were Greeks in Italy, Sicily, Turkey, North Africa, and as far west as France.

They sailed the sea to trade and find new lands. The Greeks took their ideas with them and they started a way of life that's similar to the one we have today.

2. The early history of ancient Greece

This is the Great Palace of Knossos on the island of Crete. The Minoan civilisation grew rich on trade and they built glorious palaces decorated with beautiful wall paintings.

People have been living in Greece for over 40,000 years. The earliest settlers mostly lived a simple hunter-gatherer or farming lifestyle.

The Minoans were the first great Greek civilisation. They didn't live on mainland Greece but on the nearby island of Crete, between 2200BC and 1450BC. They were known as the Minoans after their legendary king, Minos.

After the Minoans came the Mycenaean civilisation, from mainland Greece. They were fine builders and traders, but they were also great soldiers. They famously fought in the battle of Troy. Homer, an important Greek writer, told stories of the Mycenaean age in his books the Iliad and the Odyssey.

After the Mycenaean age ended in about 1100BC, Greece entered a ‘Dark Age’. It is known as a dark age because nobody knows much about what happened - all written language and art disappeared.

3. After the Dark Age

The Parthenon temple was built for the Greek goddess Athena. It sits on top of a hill called the Acropolis and looks out over the city of Athens.

In 800BC, almost 300 years after the Dark Age began, Greek civilisation slowly emerged again.

The Greeks started trading more with the outside world, they held the first Olympic Games and they fought off the invading Persian army. This period is known by historians as the ‘Archaic' period of Greek history. During this time many of the cities in Greece were ruled by a king-like figure.

Around 480BC Greece entered a golden age which lasted for 200 years. The people built fantastic temples, made scientific discoveries, wrote plays and founded the first proper democracy. Historians call this ‘Classical Greece’.

The final period of Greek history is known as the ‘Hellenistic' period. This lasted from 323BC to 30BC, when the Romans took control of Greece. The Romans didn't destroy Greek life, though. They respected the Greeks and copied many things about their culture, including their buildings, beliefs and clothes.

4. Places of ancient Greece

Click on the map to find out about some of the cities of ancient Greece

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Athens

Between 500BC and 400BC, Athens was the most important city in the world. Many of ancient Greece's greatest thinkers, artists and writers lived here.

At the centre of Athens is a rocky hill called the Acropolis. This was the site of the city’s most important temples. The largest temple was called the Parthenon. Inside there was a stunning gold and ivory statue of the goddess of the city, Athena.

Athens was also the world's first democracy. Instead of being ruled by a king, Athenian citizens would meet to decide how the city should be run. However, not everyone got a say - women, slaves and foreigners were not allowed to vote.

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Corinth

Around 400BC, Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities in ancient Greece.

It was located right at the centre of Greece, so was in a good place for trade.

Corinthians used a special type of silver coin called a stater. Traders had to use these for buying and selling when they were in the city.

On one side of the coin was a winged-horse called Pegasus and on the other was the goddess Athena.

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Delphi

Delphi was one of the holiest places in ancient Greece. People travelled from all over the country to visit a famous priestess called the Pythia.

She was said to offer advice from Apollo, the god of sun. Before making her prophecies, the Pythia would go into a trance by breathing in vapours rising from a crack in the ground.

Delphi was also home to the Pythian Games. These were like the Olympic Games but included acting, painting and dancing events, as well as athletics.

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Knossos

Knossos was the oldest city in Greece. It was located on the island of Crete and was the centre of the Minoan civilisation.

At the heart of the city was the Palace of Knossos. This vast building had over 1,000 rooms, some decorated with beautiful paintings of dolphins and bulls.

Legend has it that Knossos was also home to a man-eating bull, called the Minotaur, which roamed the palace labyrinth.

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Olympia

Olympia was home to the ancient Olympic Games.

Every 4 years, athletes came from all over Greece to compete in running, wrestling, boxing, jumping, throwing and horse racing.

The Olympic Games were also a religious festival dedicated to the god Zeus.

Visitors stared in wonder at the huge gold and ivory statue of him inside the Temple of Zeus. There was also the Great Altar of Zeus, where 100 oxen were sacrificed in his honour every year.

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Sparta

The Spartans were very serious soldiers and they spent their entire lives training for battle.

Boys left their families when they were seven years old to begin their 23 years of training to become a soldier. Only those who made it through this gruelling system were considered true Spartan citizens.

Sparta was ruled by two kings, who were supposed to be descendants of Heracles. One king might stay at home, while the other was away fighting battles. The most famous king of Sparta was Leonidas. He led 300 Spartans against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae.

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Delphi

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Corinth

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Athens

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Olympia

5. How was Greece ruled?

Alexander the Great founded over 70 cities and created an empire that stretched across three continents, covering 2 million square miles.

There was never one country called ‘ancient Greece’. Instead, Greece was divided up into small 'city-states’, like Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Olympia.

Each city-state ruled itself. They had their own governments, laws and army. So, ancient Greeks living in Sparta considered themselves Spartan first, and Greek second.

Famously, the city-states didn’t get on very well and often fought each another. However, sometimes they joined together to fight against a bigger enemy, like the Persian Empire.

Only a very powerful ruler could control all Greece. One man did in the 300s BC. He was Alexander the Great, from Macedonia. Alexander led his army to conquer an empire that stretched as far as Afghanistan and India.

6. Where next?

https://sites.google.com/site/ancientgreeksthegreekworld/what-was-it-like-to-live-in-an-ancient-greek-family

braintumor2014@gmail.com

and please send a text message to my mobile phone 0030 6942686838

( 0030 is the international area code of Greece )

in order I connect into the INTERNET and to my www.gmail.com email account and to reply to your email, withing the next 24 hours.

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( English ) the StatCounter was installed on 2016-10-23, 17:30 p.m. GMT

( Greek ) ( Ελληνικά ) Ο μετρητής εγκαταστάθηκε την 23-10-2016 19:30 μ.μ. ώρα Ελλάδας

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